The Government of Luís Montenegro will not make any final decision on the TAP before the discussion and final approval of the State Budget for 2025, as long as the document is viable thanks to the opposition. The conviction of the PSD/CDS Executive is that bringing the issue to the political debate at this time would contaminate an already delicate debate and could lead to a political crisis.
Recently, and in connection with the controversy surrounding the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the sale of TAP to David Neeleman, Pedro Nuño Santos came to leave a Warning Luis Montenegro is clear: the socialists will not give up having a say in the whole process. “The Parliament No will allow the privatisation of most of TAP’s capital. The government will not do whatever it wants,” warned the PS secretary general.
In the same statement, in fact, the socialist argued that Miguel Pinto Luz, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, who, as Secretary of State for Transport in the second and short-lived government of Pedro Passos Coelho, was associated with the process of selling the airline to David Neeleman, should be removed from the process. “It was right that the current Minister of Infrastructure I didn’t drive the process. He did not do a good job, you cannot expect him to do it now,” said Pedro Nuno Santos.
With a high degree of probability, the decree-law on the privatisation of TAP will be called to Parliament by parties on the left of the PS, so the PS agreement will be important for the Government. armor any business you wish to complete.
On a political level, however, the Government is perfectly aware that starting this debate now would be a monumental shot in the foot for anyone who wants, as Luís Montenegro says he does, to approve the next State Budget. It is enough to see that, shortly afterwards, it became known that Miguel Pinto Luz had met with the general director of Lufthansa, on the subject of TAP, which one day Luís Paixão Martins, a communications specialist and collaborator of António Costa called “toxic asset“, began to burn in the hands of the Government.
Also, technically it would be very difficult complete any privatisation process of TAP before the final approval of the General State Budget, something that, if it happens, will only occur in November. In the best case scenario, there will only be conditions to start the process of selling TAP at some point Decemberwhich means that the airline, which will be privatized, will only be sold in 2025. So far, there is still no information on the percentage that the Government wants to give to private management.
According to information initially provided by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Deutsche Lufthansa AG is reportedly interested in buying around 20% of TAP Air Portugal, in a deal that could be valued at between 180 and 200 million euros. However, the German company is not the only one interested in the business, and companies such as Air France-KLM and British Airways are not completely immune to the process.
Pedro Nuño wants to keep Pinto Luz away from the privatization of TAP
Source: Observadora
